Celebrities back Doha Centre for Media Freedom

Golden Globe-winning actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow, are among the big names who make up the Doha Centre for Media Freedom's Advisory Council and Board of Governors.

Along with Farrow, Graca Machel, former Mozambican Education Minister but now better known as Mrs Nelson Mandela is also on the Council.

Qatar is represented on the Council by its president H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulla Al Kuwari, Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage and well-known journalist Nasser Al Othman.

Noted Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho is on the Board of Governors, which is headed by Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, Al jazeera Chairman. Other board members include Jassem Marzooq Boodai, Editor-in-Chief of Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai, Egyptian writer Alaa El Aswani, Burhan Ghalioun of Syria who is Director of the Contemporary Middle East Centre at the University of Paris (Sorboone), Italian journalist Lilli Gruber, Arab Democracy Foundation Secretary-General Mohsen Marzouk, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos, French journalist and writer Patrick Poivre d' Arvor, South African journalist and historian Allister Sparks, Indian writer and former Under-Secretary General of the UN Shashi Tharoor and former French Prime Minister Dominique Villepin.

The Advisory Council has in its ranks former Portuguese minister Jose Luis Arnaut, pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim who is from Argentina, Israel and Palestine, New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner, former head of BBC Newsgathering and former President of CNN International Chris Cramer, Turkish journalist Fehmi Koru and Lebanese political scientist Ghassan Saleme.